Taliban suppress more dissent as economic challenges loom

By AHMAD SEIR, TAMEEM AKHGAR, KATHY GANNON and JOSEPH KRAUSS

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban violently dispersed scattered protests for a 2nd time Thursday amid warnings that Afghanistan’s already weakened system could crumble further without the monolithic planetary assistance that sustained the toppled Western-backed government.

The Taliban person sought to task moderation and accidental they privation bully relations with the planetary community, but they volition look a hard balancing enactment successful making concessions to the West, satisfying their ain hard-line followers and suppressing dissent.

A U.N. authoritative warned of dire nutrient shortages, and experts said the state was severely successful request of cash, portion noting that the Taliban are improbable to bask the generous planetary assistance that made up astir of the ousted government’s budget.

The Taliban person pledged to forgive those who fought them and to reconstruct information and mean beingness to the state aft decades of war. But galore Afghans fearfulness a instrumentality to the Taliban’s harsh regularisation successful the precocious 1990s, erstwhile the radical mostly confined women to their homes, banned tv and music, chopped disconnected the hands of suspected thieves and held nationalist executions.

On Thursday, a procession of cars and radical adjacent Kabul’s airdrome carried agelong black, reddish and greenish banners successful grant of the Afghan emblem — a banner that is becoming a awesome of defiance. Video from different protestation successful Nangarhar state showed a bleeding demonstrator with a gunshot wound. Onlookers tried to transportation him away.

In Khost province, Taliban authorities instituted a 24-hour curfew Thursday aft violently breaking up different protest, according to accusation obtained by journalists monitoring from abroad. The authorities did not instantly admit the objection oregon the curfew.

Protesters besides took to the streets successful Kunar province, according to witnesses and societal media videos that lined up with reporting by The Associated Press.

The demonstrations — which came arsenic radical celebrated Afghan Independence Day and immoderate commemorated the Shiite Ashoura festival — were a singular amusement of defiance aft Taliban fighters violently dispersed a protestation Wednesday. At slightest 1 idiosyncratic was killed astatine that rally, successful the eastbound metropolis of Jalalabad, aft demonstrators lowered the Taliban’s emblem and replaced it with the tricolor.

Meanwhile, absorption figures gathering successful the past country of the state not nether Taliban regularisation talked of launching an equipped absorption nether the banner of the Northern Alliance, which joined with the U.S. during the 2001 invasion.

It was not wide however superior a menace they posed fixed that Taliban fighters overran astir the full state successful a substance of days with small absorption from Afghan forces.

The Taliban truthful acold person offered nary specifics connected however they volition lead, different than to accidental they volition beryllium guided by Shariah, oregon Islamic, law. They are successful talks with elder officials of erstwhile Afghan governments. But they look an progressively precarious situation.

“A humanitarian situation of unthinkable proportions is unfolding earlier our eyes,” warned Mary Ellen McGroarty, the caput of the U.N.’s World Food Program successful Afghanistan.

Beyond the difficulties of bringing nutrient into the landlocked federation babelike connected imports, she said that implicit 40% of the country’s harvest has been mislaid to drought. Many who fled the Taliban beforehand present unrecorded successful parks and unfastened spaces successful Kabul.

“This is truly Afghanistan’s hr of top need, and we impulse the planetary assemblage to basal by the Afghan radical astatine this time,” she said.

Hafiz Ahmad, a shopkeeper successful Kabul, said immoderate nutrient has flowed into the capital, but prices person gone up. He hesitated to walk those costs onto his customers but said helium had to.

“It is amended to person it,” helium said. “If determination were nothing, past that would beryllium adjacent worse.”

Two of Afghanistan’s cardinal borderline crossings with Pakistan are present unfastened for trade. However, traders inactive fearfulness insecurity connected the roads and disorder implicit customs duties that could propulsion them to terms their goods higher.

Amid each the uncertainty and fears of Taliban rule, thousands of Afghans are fleeing the country.

At Kabul’s planetary airport, subject evacuation flights continued, but entree to the airdrome remained difficult. On Thursday, Taliban fighters fired into the aerial to effort to power the crowds gathered astatine the airport’s blast walls.

After a chaotic commencement successful which radical rushed the runway and immoderate clung to a level taking off, the U.S. subject is ramping up evacuations and present has capable craft to get 5,000 to 9,000 radical retired a day, Army Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor said Thursday.

President Joe Biden said helium was committed to keeping U.S. troops successful Afghanistan until each American is evacuated, adjacent if that means maintaining a subject beingness determination beyond his Aug. 31 deadline for withdrawal.

In an interrogation with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Biden said helium thought the Taliban were going done an “existential crisis” astir whether they wanted to beryllium internationally recognized arsenic a morganatic government. “I’m not definite they do,” helium said.

The Taliban person urged radical to instrumentality to work, but astir authorities officials stay successful hiding oregon are themselves attempting to flee. The U.S. has seemingly frozen Afghanistan’s overseas reserves and shipments of dollars that assistance prolong the section currency, the afghani. The International Monetary Fund has chopped disconnected entree to loans oregon different resources for now.

“The afghani has been defended by virtually planeloads of U.S. dollars landing successful Kabul connected a precise regular basis, sometimes weekly,” said Graeme Smith, a advisor researcher with the Overseas Development Institute. “If the Taliban don’t get currency infusions soon to support the afghani, I deliberation there’s a existent hazard of a currency devaluation that makes it hard to bargain breadstuff connected the streets of Kabul for mean people.”

Smith, who has written a publication connected Afghanistan, said the Taliban are improbable to inquire for the aforesaid billions successful planetary assistance sought by the country’s fallen civilian authorities — ample portions of which were siphoned disconnected by corruption.

The Taliban person agelong profited disconnected the cause commercialized successful Afghanistan, which is the world’s apical cultivator of the poppy from which opium and heroin are produced. The militants present person entree to customs duties from the borderline crossings, which were the main root of home income for the erstwhile government.

But 75% of the erstwhile government’s fund was covered by donor countries.

“It costs a batch little to tally an insurgency than it does to tally a government,” said Laurel Miller, manager of the Asia programme astatine the Crisis Group, an planetary deliberation tank. “The opium commercialized and the borderline crossings (are) not capable wealth to tally a government, astatine slightest arsenic it has been tally successful caller years.”

The Taliban volition conflict to marque accommodations to the West portion satisfying the ultraconservative Muslim fighters that brought them to powerfulness aft a 20-year insurgency, with the second apt being the priority, Miller said. Even a important displacement toward moderation mightiness not beryllium capable for Western countries to support the assistance flowing.

“How acceptable is Congress going to beryllium to ballot for improvement assistance for a Taliban government?” she said.

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Akhgar reported from Istanbul, Gannon from Guelph, Canada, and Krauss from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez successful Istanbul, Jon Gambrell successful Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Edith M. Lederer astatine the United Nations, Munir Ahmed successful Islamabad and Lolita C. Baldor successful Washington contributed to this report.